I took out the 1200 cc i built for my misses a while back. I put a new belt on the 44'' mower deck the 72'' mule drive belt. I adjusted it and mowed the whole place. then under the pine trees i wanted to hog the poison ivy and that 5 leaf stuff and clean under the trees were the machine would fit. I'm thinking why do i always go thru the mule drive belts so quickly. It threw off the new belt. Now i'm thinking it takes one little branch or stick to hit the mule drive area and pry the belt off the pullies. I promise I won't go brush hogg'n anymore with my cadets. The weeds were only 8'' to 10'' high but that one little twig got me everytime.

What a sweet machine the 1220 quietline is too. I was mowing the place in third gear and just crusing along slowly at a low rpm and its so quiet and smooth over my narrow frames. The 44'' deck is probably the best deck they ever designed too. My 38'', my 42'' and my 48'' narrow frame decks don't even come close to the smoothness of the 44'' deck. The 44'' deck appears to sit lower to the grass withy the housing so it sucks up the grass and cuts it at the sametime. Its not like a cut with a reel but its very close. The only thing i don't like is the sealed bearing shaft setups on the spindles. When they go bad i may take off the 42'' spindles and rebuild them and install them in my 44'' deck Bill

I'm technically misunderstood at times i guess its been this way my whole life so why should it change now.

I was mowing the place in third gear and just crusing along slowly at a low rpm and its so quiet and smooth over my narrow frames.

It is your tractor, do as you wish, but both Kohler, and IH say (more than once in every operators manual) to mow with the engine at full throttle. Mowing at a low engine RPM is hard on the engine. The fins on the flywheel will not generate enough air flow across the engine to cool it, and the engine will overheat. Any use that puts a load on the engine such as mowing, tilling, snowblowing, etc., should be done at a full throttle if you want the engine to last, it was designed for that.

Thanks for the advice i won't do that again. In 3rd gear wide open i'm flying way to fast to control it. I'm starting to wonder if they used different gear ratio's because one tractor feels faster than the others. Bill

I'm technically misunderstood at times i guess its been this way my whole life so why should it change now.

Don't mow in 3rd gear, use 1st or 2nd gear depending on where/what you are mowing. The only gear ratio's that are different is 2nd gear. From the Original to serial number 96765, 2nd gear had 16/36 teeth (16 on the sliding gear, 36 on the lower fixed gear), narrow frames from S/N 96766 to the the wide frame tractors had a 19/33 tooth 2nd gear, and the wide frames (models 86, 108, 128, 800,1000, 1200, 582) had 17/35 tooth 2nd gear...........provided some one has not done some parts swapping. The gears will interchange, PROVIDED you change both the sliding and fixed gear as a set to maintain a total tooth count of 52 for the two gears. The other gear ratios are the same in all models.